[Vision2020] You're Doing One Heckufa Job on the Economy, Bushie!

Sun Sep 24 08:59:22 PDT 2006

Many small businesses thrive with little or no profit (profit = income - 
expenses*).   However, they do provide income for employed family members 
and others in the form of wages, benefits, etc (all part of *expenses). 
Some go on like this for years.  Hence, making is a profit is not 
necessarily a requirement for a successful business.  However, it best not 
to incur losses.

Losses do not necessarily mean that a business is a complete failure, 
either.  Even if a business eventually goes out of existence, they have 
provided jobs and benefits for their owners/employees, income for their 
vendors, etc as well as having provided goods/services to the community.

So when someone makes the over-simplified, ignorance laden statement that 
"Without profit, there are no jobs, without jobs there are no pay checks, 
except for those who are on entitlement programs" one is again sadly 
reminded that no matter how hard we try to provide a decent education for 
all, there are bound to be some failures in this attempt.

Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to businesses making a fair profit. 
I am not against enterprise, fair/ legal competition, and individual 
initiative, but strongly for it as I have benefited directly from such.

I am against the belief that enterprise should be left without reins and 
unregulated and its effects debated without reference to the consequences to 
the totality of the milieu in which it operates or proposes to operate. 
Only a fool would believe that unfettered enterprise is healthy and 
wonderful, even if that fool only read a newspaper once in their lives. 
There is room for rational debate about how much regulation is needed 
generally and in specific cases.

What I object to in this thread so far is the over-simplification of a very 
complex issue.  In the case of some of the participants, this 
over-simplification is the result of ignorance and congenital dumbness. 
With others, business people who should know better, it is a dishonest 
attempt to obscure the issues and to smear those not in agreement without 
having to resort to facts or rational argument.

W.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Sherwin" <rvrcowboy at clearwire.net>
To: "Vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>; "Kai Eiselein, editor" 
<editor at lataheagle.com>
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] You're Doing One Heckufa Job on the 
Economy,Bushie!

> You are correct, Kai.  Business is not only about making a profit, it is
> imperative that business make a profit.  Without profit, there are no 
> jobs,
> without jobs there are no pay checks, except for those who are on
> entitlement programs.
>
> Only a true socialist would put down business for making a profit.  Hence,
> the prattling of Nick Gier.
>
> Dick S
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kai Eiselein, editor" <editor at lataheagle.com>
> To: <nickgier at adelphia.net>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 10:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] You're Doing One Heckufa Job on the
> Economy,Bushie!
>
>
>> Ummmmm, productivity has gone in profits, not wages....... Last time I
> checked business was about making profit..... Which is good, because thats
> what PAYS WAGES!  yeeesh Nick
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
>> [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of nickgier at adelphia.net
>> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 10:38 AM
>> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>> Subject: [Vision2020] You're Doing One Heckufa Job on the Economy,
>> Bushie!
>>
>>
>> Greetings:
>>
>> I decided to get my radio commentary out of the way early this week, so
> that I can work on my book on religious violence.  This is the longer
> version.
>>
>> Thanks, Saundra, for saving me the trouble of trying to switch to
> Time-Warner.  I don't want a RoadRunner e-mail address, but on second
> thought, it might help me outwit the witless coyotes down the hill.
>>
>> YOU'RE DOING ONE HECKUFA JOB ON THE ECONOMY, BUSHIE!
>>
>> Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho
>>
>> Note: BLS stands for Bureau of Labor Statistics
>>
>> President Bush keeps telling us that the economy is growing, but "The 
>> Wall
> Street Journal" reported (3/27/06) that most of that productivity has gone
> into profits not wages.  A "The New York Times" editorial explains: "Wages
> and salaries now make up the lowest proportion of the economy since 1947,
> while corporate profits have climbed to their highest since the 1960s"
> (8/29/06).
>>
>> Worker productivity has gone up 18.4 percent, but wages are down, so any
> additional income has obviously gone to the rich, not the poor and middle
> class. The poverty rate has gone up 17 percent since 2000.  Those in deep
> poverty—$7,800 for a family of three—number the highest since 1975, when
> such surveys began.
>>
>> During the 1950s and 1960s, median household incomes doubled, but since
> 1979, the lower classes have experienced no wage increase at all, while
> middle class income has increased by a mere $200 per year.  In stark
> contrast, the top 1 percent of Americans has enjoyed a 111.3 percent raise
> (Rocky Mt. News, 5/2/06). The Census Bureau reports that median family
> income for those 25-34 has dropped 5.9 percent during the Bush
> administration.
>>
>> Bush also brags about the low unemployment rate, but there are many
> important qualifiers. The rate is actually 10 percent higher than when he
> took office, and the number unemployed longer than 26 weeks has climbed 57
> percent (BLS, 7/7/06). Many have simply dropped out of the job market,
> because there are 1.7 percent fewer people working now than in April 2000.
>>
>> Three million manufacturing jobs have been lost (BLS, 7/7/06) to new jobs
> in the service sector and other low paying positions, half of which are
> part-time and offer no benefits (LA Times, 7/24/06).  Bush has the worst 
> job
> growth record since the Great Depression (BLS, 7/7/06).  Excluding 
> farming,
> 22.7 million jobs were created during the Clinton years, while only 2.3
> million have come on line under Bush.
>>
>> Entry level wages for college graduates have fallen 4 percent over the
> last five years—7.3 percent for men and 3.5 percent for women—the first
> decline in 30 years. Health coverage for this same group has fallen by 7
> percent. Health insurance premiums have risen 71 percent over the same
> period, making it more likely that these young families will be faced with
> bankrupting medical bills.  In 2005 1.3 million more Americans were 
> without
> health coverage for a total of 46.5 million.
>>
>> Apartment rents and house prices have climbed steeply. The American dream
> of owning your own home is now just that for many young Americans.  The
> housing affordability index is at its lowest since 1987. With house values
> dropping and interest rates rising, recent home owners, who were seduced 
> by
> no down payments and adjustable rate mortgages, may soon find that they 
> owe
> much more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
>>
>> Americans have always had the lowest savings rate in the world.  Now this
> rate has gone into the negative, which means that we are spending more 
> than
> we earn.  People under the age of 35 are spending a whopping 16 percent 
> more
> than they take in. In 2005 Americans had the worst ratio of household and
> mortgage debt to disposable income in 25 years. We are also buying more
> goods from other countries than we are exporting.  In 2005 the trade 
> deficit
> reached $726 billion, twice the size of 2001, due in large part to imports
> from China.
>>
>> Because of Bush's tax breaks, the total national debt has increased $3
> trillion in 5 years, a 54 percent increase, beating Reagan's record of 
> $1.6
> trillion in 8 years. China, Japan, and other countries also hold $1.2
> trillion of our national debt, and they could decide to unload those 
> bounds
> at any time.  Because of the declining value of the dollar, OPEC countries
> could also decide to price their oil in stronger euros instead of weaker
> dollars.
>>
>> As economist Jayati Ghosh states: "The U. S. public merrily continues to
> spend its way through the rest of the world's savings," borrowing $600
> billion alone in 2005. The American grasshoppers' long summer of
> overconsumption will eventually end, and the world's ants, some of them
> putting away 30 percent of their income, will come out on top.
>>
>> Europeans stood firmly with us after 9/11, assuming that the U. S. would
> seek a multilateral solution to terrorism, but now 71 percent of them
> believe that Bush is the greatest threat to world peace.  Many Americans 
> now
> have good reason to believe that Bush's domestic policies are undermining
> their financial security and their children's economic future.
>>
>> Way to go, Bushie!
>>
>>
>>
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